A Piece of Pie
by magakee
Summary: An adventure of season three. When Emerson's new client is after someone called "The Pie Maker", secrets from the past come back from the dead and Olive is suddenly in need of a magic touch. Slightly AU.
1. Prologue

**A/N: Hello there! I've had this idea cooking up for a while but have finally decided to turn it into a mini fic! It feels so awesome to write about a show that I dearly miss as I'm sure we all do :) Please read, review and enjoy - I'd really appreciate it! Thanks xx (Also, I'll be updating this fic super quickly so stay tuned!)**

 **Prologue**

At this very moment, Emerson Cod, thirty eight years, four months, nine weeks, and twenty-two days old, received the most peculiar case.

Standing in front of him, shaking from the weight of her own tears was a woman who had offered him $12, 000 with a story that intrigued him nearly as much as the money.

The facts where these: last night, the young lady was sitting, as she so put, _innocently_ in her living room when she heard an "ominous" knock on her door. Before she could even get up to check who it was, the door was kicked off of its hinges and she had suddenly been submerged into the darkness a paper bag over her head had caused. She then went off to mention how no harm to her was caused as she sat in the blackness waiting for her death to come. Oh no. Instead, a single question was asked by her captor, one that left even Mr. Emerson Cod in a state of shock that made him wish he had merely accepted the money and rejected in ever hearing the details that would follow.

And so we find Emerson Cod, renowned private investigator, rejecting her (and her large sum of money), and hiding the news deep within his mind, refusing to, in any way, shape or form, tell The Pie Maker he was dear friends with that _he_ was the man the woman was after, or that his life was in great danger. He would, evidently, take this to his grave until further notice. Closing the door behind him, he made his way to The Pie Hole.


	2. Chapter One

**Chapter One**

The Pie Maker paced anxiously across the whimsically tiled floor of The Pie Hole, feeling as though the ground beneath him would wear down from his feverish footsteps.

Upon finally deciding to put the girl he called Chuck's happiness before his own, Aunts Lily and Vivien were reunited with their beloved niece. Except to one of them, she was a daughter and this, to his dismay, complicated things a great deal more between the Darling Mermaid Darlings who had been ready to head to Europe for their comeback tour.

After Vivien had regained her senses and Lily had decided to put her shotgun down, Ned had witnessed a broken family put the pieces back together, and after an hour of this, had decided to leave the three to catch up with his secret in the palm of their hands. Yes, the secret that he could bring dead things back from the dead. One touch life, the next, dead – _forever_. And now, the Aunts he'd been acquainted with his whole life knew about the thing he feared would land him in a circus for the rest of eternity, to be pointed and laughed at by millions of passers-by's.

He shuddered, feeling the fear and humiliation gang up on him, and for once, questioned whether putting dear Charlotte Charles' happiness before his own was the right thing to do, for he was not happy. He was _terrified_.

Olive Snook, former infatuate and waitress for the Pie Maker took notice.

"Ned, are you alright?"

He stopped, having had his thoughts disappear with the sudden presence of the girl he once knew loved him.

"You're pacing faster than a sinner at church." She added.

"What?" He shook his head and shoved his hands in his pockets, "Who's pacing?"

" _You_ ," she giggled, "you know… before you stopped…" She tried to smile but the look on the worried Pie Maker's face sent her into a flurry of thought.

However, before she could say much else, the taxidermist, Randy Mann, had returned from the washroom, greeted by her widened eyes and a piece of Three Berry pie a la mode.

"This looks… a _wkward_." He met Ned's worried eyes and added, "Not the pie though! The pie looks delicious."

Olive irritably blinked three times and pursed her lips.

"Randy, could you give us a moment?"

His eyes fell, "Oh, yeah… Sure."

Ned and Olive both watched intently as the man the waitress had fallen in love with most recently made his way to sit at the bar in front of the cash register, glancing back ever so slightly to see what all the hullabaloo was about.

"Listen," Olive motioned for Ned to come closer, "you know you can trust me right? I'm trustworthy! Just ask anyone!"

"I trust you..." He tried to turn away from her, the heaviness of his secret weighing down on him, but she grabbed onto his wrist.

"Please Ned. _Please_. _Please. Please!"_

"Olive!" He begged, trying to pull away from her.

The truth was, Ned knew Olive was trustworthy. She was loud, she was obnoxious, selfish and a little obsessive, but within her tiny frame there was a big heart and a great amount of trust. But, and there was a but, he doubted heavily that she'd ever heard a secret with quite as much grandeur and weight as his and _that_ he did not trust that she could be trusted with.

Before the Pie Maker had time to sweep his thoughts together the chimes above the door that they were so accustomed to seeing fly open sang, and everyone's head riveted towards it to find Miss Charlotte Charles.

"Chuck..." The words came out on their own and Ned was moving towards her.

The first thing he noticed was her eyes; her big, brown, beautiful eyes filled to the brim with tears. Ned felt his heart drop to the pit of his stomach.

"Oh no. I knew it."

She shook her head, "No, Ned –"

He motioned her aside quickly and ran his sweaty palms through his hair in anxiety, "I knew they wouldn't be able to handle it! Now I have to think about packing my bags and moving to God knows where-"

Chuck turned scarlet and waved her arms in front of him, wiping her tears rapidly and smiling, unable to shut him up with the kiss that burned on her lips, "Ned thank you. Thank you, thank you, _thank_ you."

"But… what!?" His cheeks flushed red, "Everything's okay? They aren't – scared?"

"No." She grinned, slipping on a glove she had learnt to keep handy in her right pocket, and holding the Pie Maker's hand within her own, "No Ned, they aren't. They're happy too… Ned, I got to hold my mom again."

And that moment precisely, time seemed to stand still.

Customers and employees, friends and acquaintances no longer existed in the midst of that pie shop. There were no longer baked goods of all sorts being cooked in the kitchen and intoxicating aromas of buttery crusts and grilled fruit wafting through the air. There was only Charlotte Charles and Ned, The Pie Maker, standing hand in hand in the Pie Hole, staring lovingly into each other's eyes.

But as we know, happiness is short lived, and before Emerson Cod could warn young Ned about the dangers he was about to face, the door to the Pie Hole was opened and a young woman walked in.

It was not her matted dark brown hair covering most of her face, her big green eyes, or even the sharp click of her high heel boots that drew the most attention to the crowd inside the restaurant, or that sent everyone screaming... It was her gun.

"Where is he?" She demanded, looking around the fearful room with disdain, "I said WHERE IS HE?"

Ned's eyes widened. She couldn't mean him, could she?

"Where's my brother, huh? I know he works here! He's the Pie Maker everyone's been talking about."

"Ned?" Olive sputtered from under the table they were hiding in, cradled in Randy's arms, "Ned, what's she yappin' on about?"

"HEY SHUT IT!" She spat.

Suddenly the woman's burning gaze was fixated on Olive, who was now shivering so hard under the table she was beneath that it shook with her. Randy squeezed her hand as the menacing click of her shoes upon the tile neared the table and they both shut their eyes, still trying to comprehend the sudden turn life at the peaceful pie shop had taken.

And then, the unthinkable happened. As the trigger was pulled by the girl in a loud _BANG_ , spinning at what seemed like a thousand miles per second, it spun and spun until it founds its home in the heart of one Olive Snook.


	3. Chapter Two

**Chapter 3**

The Pie Maker skid forward in a rush of hysteria and panic, two emotions he was not particularly fond of but unfortunately, very familiar with.

"Don't touch her!" He spat, reaching his hands out towards the gun without thinking. The cool metal around its mouth was touching his temple in seconds and Ned could suddenly feel a shiver radiate throughout his body as he met the eyes of the woman holding it. From this rather bone chilling encounter, Ned drew two conclusions he had wished he had not:

1\. This woman was someone that knew him, and knew him well.

2\. He had met this woman before, for no one, not even the dead he would wake, had ever had that shade of green in their eyes. Not _one_ \- except the one in the back of his mind he had somehow forgotten.

Then suddenly, as he continued to stand petrified with thoughts of his dying friend under the table she used to eat boysenberry pie over, his lover put in the danger of death once more, and his pride-and-joy Pie Shop under attack, a realization of sorts struck him:

The Pie Maker, for the first time in a very long time, was scared of dying, because he knew that if he was the one in need of a magic touch – no one would be able to give it to him.

He gulped.

"Don't do, uh," he swallowed the lump that had appeared in his throat, "don't do anything you'll regret now… Please."

"Don't try to small talk me."

"Apologies…" Ned blinked a few times and tried to look around the shop for signs of help. Anything at all…

"I know who you are Ned, and I can't believe what you've done!"

"Who are you!?"

He moved ever so slightly in agitation and the gun's cold tip bounced off his temple and right back onto as though it had never left, as though it had always belonged there.

"Come on, seriously?" She rolled her eyes, "Dad really didn't talk much about me after all…"

"Dad?" He sputtered, "Why dad? Who's dad?"

Her sudden laugh echoed jubilantly across the room, as though it had responded to a joke, but to Ned, it was the most sinister thing he had ever heard.

She stopped and sighed, "Your dad, dummy. _Our_ Dad. And I would cut the chit chat, I think your friend under the table there is, you know, _dying_."

Ned felt his insides tighten.

 ** _Olive..._**

"Oh did you just remember?" She sang, "How very friendly of you!"

Her hand snapped up and grabbed him by the collar roughly, pulling him close enough so that he could hear her whisper, "Don't you think she'll be needing that _special touch_ soon?"

And then she laughed. 

...

Three miles to the East, Emerson Cod, private investigator, was moving past traffic as though his life depended on it, because even though _his_ really didn't, someone's did. A dear Pie Maker of a friend and colleague was in danger from some unknown force, and he was about to warn him of it no matter the cost. After all, what kind of business would he own if he couldn't bring back the dead he was investigating and ask them questions? And more importantly than that, he thought, what kind of person wold he be to let this dear Pie Maker meet his ends without a say in it.

And so Emerson Cod, now two miles to the East of the pie shop he had grown very fond of, continued speeding down the roads in order to get to the bottom of it with the case presented to him last night still burning in his mind.


	4. Chapter Three

**Chapter Four**

In an extremely unfortunate and unforeseen turn of events, the facts had become these: Olive Snook, 28 years, 10 months, 3 weeks, and 8 days old had

Her heart had stopped beating whilst she awaited death in the shivering arms of Randy Mann, the man she had fallen in love with after years of infatuation with the Pie Maker.

But now, none of that mattered.

Olive Snook and her love, her jokes, her laugh, her obsessions, her talent, and her life – were gone.

Randy's sobs could not be heard over Chuck and Ned's, "Olive!", in unison.

The Pie Maker no longer cared for the gun pointed at his temple, nor the woman holding it, he cared only for the person he had grown to love who lay motionless under the table she once served and ate at in happiness.

He reached for her but suddenly drew back, aware of what would happen if he made one wrong move. Sure, Chuck and this mystery woman knew of his secret, but Randy and all the customers in his restaurant didn't. If he made one wrong move, Olive would spring to life without explanation and Ned would be revealed, at risk of being stuck behind the display cases of carnivals for the rest of time. Besides, he had done that before - brought someone back to life and kept them that way for longer than a minute ... and that had resulted in permanent life for them and his permanent sentence of never being able to touch them again. And that, was not always the best situation...

"What's wrong?" The woman was speaking again, "Didn't you want to hold your friend?"

He grit his teeth, and opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by a familiar voice. At that exact moment, the private investigator had arrived at the scene; FBI badge, attitude and all.

"Everyone out! Special investigation taking place!" He shout over the screams.

The response was almost immediate. Emerson Cod waited in eerie patience as the crowds of terrified customers flew past him in thankful panic. He waited and waited till the last customer flew past him and the double doors behind him closed with a swish and a thud.

Then he, too, suddenly met the tantalizing eyes of the woman who had wreaked havoc on their little slice of pie shop and suddenly froze.

"YOU!?" He marched forward whilst turning a sickly shade of scarlet, "Weren't you the one that came to me in tears about being _attacked_ last night!?"

She seemed just as surprised, "I didn't think you were that good at your job!" She looked around briefly and suddenly spotted Mr. Mann huddled under the table next to his dead girlfriend, "You have three seconds to get out."

Randy closed his arms tighter around Olive, "Wha - No!"

The trigger clicked.

"One,"

Chuck screamed, "Randy!"

"Two,"

"RANDY!"

Then she stopped counting.

The taxidermist carefully, and painfully, pried himself away from his girlfriend and onto the checkerboard floor beneath his shivering legs.

Slowly, agonizingly, he moved towards the emerald green doors, and, just like the crowds before him, disappeared into the safe haven outside.

The woman sighed as though a burden had been lifted off of her shoulders.

"Now that that's out of the way," she pointed towards Olive and locked eyes with Ned, "do it."

Before continuing, it is imperative to make clear that the private investigator that had arrived specifically to warn The Pie Maker of the danger that awaited him was a bit disappointed. Not only was he too late for something he was sure only he knew of, but he had _completely_ misread the intentions of the true culprit, and - he had allowed a friend to die.

"Oh _HELL_ no!" He boomed.

He then proceeded to lunge forward, grab the gun from the woman's unsuspecting hands, and point it back at her, something not even she had seen coming.

"I can't believe that worked..." He muttered under his breath before grimacing at her and clicking the trigger in place.

She seemed to internally shriek, "H-hold it right there! Come on now – "

"Oh shut up!" He spat, "You owe us some answers!"

"No!" She shook her head and riveted towards Ned, "Aren't you going to bring your friend back to life?"

Ned furrowed his eyebrows and crossed his arms, "Not until we figure out what is going on here. You've done what you've wanted to, now it's our turn."

The huff that followed his statement was so loud The Pie Maker wondered for a moment if it was fake.

"Fine." She spat through her teeth, "What do you want to know. I'm all ears." She shot a burning look at Emerson, who held her own weapon against her, "Not that I have a choice…"

Emerson smirked bitterly, "Perfect. Now do me a favor and shut the hell up for a second so I can gather my thoughts."


	5. Chapter Four

**Chapter Four**

The facts were these:

29 years, 6 months, 1 week, and 15 days ago, Ned was born into a family that consisted of one mother and one very inconsistent father.

This, "inconsistency" on behalf of his father also lead to two half-brothers for Ned, and a whole other chapter in his ever growing book of surprises.  
Today, his book would have another chapter written in it, for his father's inconsistency's seemed to have taken over as author.

31 years, 4 months, 5 weeks, and 1 day ago, Nora was born to the same inconsistent father and a completely different mother. A mother who would grow tired of caring for an infant and put Nora up for adoption even with a father who was more than capable of caring for her, but lacked presence in their fleeting relationship.

So, with this as her earliest moments, moments she could not even remember, young Nora did not have a happy childhood.

She did not play with toys nor have imaginary friends. She did not have any pets and she did not spend her afternoons getting soaked in the sunset or running drunk with joy in fields and parks with her friends.

Young Nora spent her days alone in her room, dreaming of a family she never knew of and wondering what it would be like to have siblings. She did not care for friends when the thought of a brother or sister to call her own was a possibility.

Nora thought of what kind of man her father was and what kind of woman her mother was. She thought of the kinds of dinners they would spend in each other's company and she thought of the days they would spend together on picnics or at the beach.

But, she never got to know.

Instead, she grew and grew in isolation, staring out windows longingly and calling the flies that buzzed around them her friends once she had decided she was too lonely to function. She told them her troubles and her worries; thoughts that made her heart beat faster against her tender chest and her stomach churn and twist with worry. She also told them of happy thoughts; dreams she would have of family game nights and bedtime stories read aloud to her by her mom and dad that would make her sleep a little tighter and wake up with a smile plastered on her face.

This went on, and on, till one day, one of the flies had died and she, being the curious child she was, picked it up to give it a proper burial.

This did not have the outcome young Nora would have wanted, or expected.

Before her eyes, the fly buzzed back to life and flew beyond her reach and out the door, never to return again.

This also, changed everything.

In a rush of panic, she killed all the flies, one by one, then touched them again, bringing each one back to life with a buzz and a quick farewell as they flew away.

After that day, horrified and tantalized by what had just happened, Nora locked the memories away, deep in her mind, and promised never to touch anything that had died again or tell anyone of what she could do with the flies.

Now, without the company of her "friends", she continued to rest in loneliness and wonder if she could ever tell her secret to someone one day and discover that they could do the same.

Then, on her eleventh birthday, the young girl received news that her "real" father had come to visit her.

She did not know why he would do that so suddenly, but as newly turned eleven-year-olds do, she did not realize how quickly she got herself to the door to meet him in excitement. What surprised her, however, was not the presence of the "father", the man she had always dreamed of meeting, at the entrance of her orphanage, but that of the young boy with him.

He introduced himself as "Ned" and told her quite honestly (and very bluntly) that he had just lost his mother.

So, unaware that she shared a completely different mother than him, young Nora assumed that she had just lost _her_ mother too, the mother she had never met, and pulled him aside quickly to tell him of how she could help.

She told him of how she could bring dead flies back to life and perhaps, just perhaps, she could bring a dead person back too.

But he didn't let her.

No, in fact, he mentioned how he, at nine years, 27 weeks, six days and three minutes old, had already done that, and with no luck, had witnessed his mother die again when she had kissed him goodnight.

Then he told her of how he was going to boarding school, and how he would never see her again, and how that meant that she would have to wait a long while to see their father again.

And this, in short, was how Nora, on her eleventh birthday, learnt how to hold a grudge about the boy who had taken so much from her in such a short amount of time.

Her power was no longer special, she had lost her mother, brother, and father, and, till she was eighteen and dismissed from the orphanage she was never adopted from, never saw them again.

So, Nora, now a young adult, fled out into the big, wide, world she had never grown to know, with a heavy and bitter heart. She promised herself that she would find Ned again and that she would make him answer for the ideas he had planted in her head so long ago. Why was he allowed to share the same family as her and adopt their love whilst she had never even got to kiss her mother or hold her father's hand.

Life had been unfair to Nora, so she wanted revenge on the boy who seemed to have started it all.

And now finally, she had found him.


	6. Chapter Five

**Chapter Five**

Emerson Cod, was, for lack of a better word, completely and utterly pissed off.

"Are you KIDDING ME!?"

Nora shook her head, "What?"

"You tracked me down and lied to me about some case to see if I could lead you to Ned, then find Ned yourself, _kill_ his friend, destroy is restaurant, and completely _piss me off_ just so you could get revenge from nineteen years ago!?" He turned towards Ned and shook his head, "She's crazy!"

"Yeah, no kidding!" Ned shook his head and refused to look at Olive Snook, who was now being cradled by Chuck who sobbed mournfully over her corpse.

She was quick to retaliate, "You ruined my dreams!"

"Yeah, well, I had dreams too!" Ned burst, "And I had the same, crappy father you did so we we're in the same boat!"

She frowned bitterly, "At least you knew you _had_ a dad... _And_ you killed mom before I could even meet her!"

"Mom?" Ned shook his head, "We don't have the same mom!"

Nora paused, "Huh?"

The Pie Maker then threw his hands up in frustration, "We never had the same mom. Dad, as I now understand, had you first, then me, and then our two half-brothers years later – so it's not like I don't know what it feels like to get that curve ball thrown at you, OK?"

"We have other siblings!?"

"Oh you bet." Ned rolled his eyes, "And all _this,"_ he pointed his finger around the Pie Hole and then at Olive, "was _totally_ unnecessary. Why did you take it this far!?"

"I just wanted you to know what I felt like for _years_. I never saw dad again! I grew up thinking I was a monster and that I would never have a family! I never have and I'm 31!"

"Well, to be fair, neither did I!" Ned threw his head down in shame, "Dad stopped writing to me in boarding school and, that's about the last I heard from him."

The room rang heavily with silence before Nora shook her head, "Bastard."

He nodded, "I'm _sorry_ for what a nine year old me did to you, but I didn't mean it! I was just... being a kid!"

For the first time, the company in that room heard a sigh of regret and remorse escape the woman's lips as she said, "I – I feel like an idiot."

Emerson scoffed, "You should."

Chuck interrupted, shaking from the frustration she had been bottling up the whole time, "Now _wake Olive up_."

All heads riveted towards them suddenly.

She cleared her throat, "Someone wake Olive up, _now_."

Nora looked at Ned, "Do it."

The Pie Maker was then met with a choice. He could either use his gift to bring another friend back to life and risk never touching her again, meaning he would have to be extra careful around her for the rest of time or she would die and there was nothing he could do about it. Doing this would also mean Olive would know his secret… and that, he was not sure they were both ready for.

"I – I can't do it."

Chuck and Emerson's jaws dropped in unison, "Ned!"

"I can't do it! I'll have to do what I've been doing with you Chuck." He closed his eyes and rubbed his temples, "And this is Olive we're talking about. _Olive_. The girl who can't keep her hands off of people. What if I kill her by accident!? I couldn't live with myself…"

After the initial shock, Chuck nodded slowly, her eyes filling with tears and a small gasp escaping her lips as she mumbled, "I understand."

"What, so you're just going to let her die?" Emerson spat, "You let little Miss Charlotte Charles prance around here, full of life, but you kill the girl who was in love with you for _years_. And how exactly do you think Randy feels Mr. Casanova?"

The Pie Maker let out a grunt, "I know! I know all this! I just, I couldn't live with myself if something went wrong! I can't take these risks unless it's with fruits and/or the victims of our investigations. That's my field of work – I, I've long retired from… expanding on that work."

He quickly exchanged glances with Chuck and tried to mask the tears forming in his own eyes.

Then Nora spoke up.

"Stop it." She took a deep breath, "I can do it. I'll bring her back."


	7. Chapter Six

**Chapter Six**

One touch life, the next death. The Pie Maker, who had somewhat mastered the art of bringing things back to life, had grown used to this fact from the moment he had accidentally killed his mother. Nora, his sister, had not. She had only ever killed flies, brought them back to life, and locked this horrific experience in the treasure chest of her terrible memories since she had experienced it. Today, she was reunited with the gut wrenchingly strange experience of bringing dead things back to life against her own will.

However, in order to conceal this fact from one Miss Olive Snook, Emerson Cod had constructed a plan. And so, they had strategically moved Olive's body from Pie shop and café to hospital, where she would soon "wake" up with the excuse of having been saved by a miracle of team of doctors after the woman who had shot her was taken to prison for the rest of time. Ironically, this woman was the one who would actually be bringing her back to life.

Ned, however reluctant to help his lunatic of a half-sister, began to coach her through the unwritten rules of their gift.

"One touch life, the next death. You cannot touch her twice – do you understand?"

She nodded.

"If you leave her alive for longer than a minute she'll stay that way forever, which is why you need to get yourself out of here as soon as you touch her. I'll do the same in case something happens and we touch my accident."

She continued to nod.

"And, even after Emerson takes you into custody, you won't ever be able to touch Olive again if you run into her. If you do, she'll die."

"And I can't bring her back…" Nora added, fully understanding the scope of her gift, "Got it."

Ned forced a smile, "Good. Now do what you have to do."

"Okay…" Nora moved forward, taking deep breaths and preparing herself to enter the hospital room. Then she stopped, "Ned?"

"Yes?" He grew impatient with each passing moment.

"I'm sorry I did all this. I'm sorry we had to meet under these circumstances."

He shrugged, "Well, you _are_ crazy."

When she furrowed her eyebrows he awkwardly added, "But you're family! I guess we get that from dad..."

She nodded, her mess of brown locks shaking with her, "And this, "gift", of sorts, right?"

And then the Pie Maker was struck with another realization. Nora was right. If they shared the same father and they both possessed the same power – would that mean that their father had it all along? Did their grandfather have it and it skipped a generation? Did it lie within their ancestry? And why didn't their half-brothers have it?

He huffed, "I don't know Nora… but I'll look into it for you when you're, you know, in custody.

She bobbed her head up and down slowly, solemnly accepting what consequences her actions had earned her.

"Understood." She then looked up unexpectedly and smiled, "Thanks, brother."

Ned returned it, much against his own will, "Anytime."

Then he watched as the pasty blue doors to the hospital room where spread open by her confidently as she stepped in, ready to finally return life, love, and everything he missed about her into Olive Snook.


	8. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

In the town of Coeur de Coeur's, Olive Snook sat on her hospital bed eating copious amounts of the mac and cheese Randy Mann had brought her from the Intrepid Cow.

She had just come back from the dead, except, she didn't know that, nor ever would.

Chuck, sporting the glove she had learnt to keep handy in her pocket held onto the Pie Makers Hand as they watched Randy Mann and his newly revived girlfriend talk ecstatically between bites of cheesy goodness.

To their left, Emerson Cod, renowned private investigator leaned against the wall with a bottle of brandy in his hand.

"Emerson?" Ned asked, "Will Nora be okay?"

He took a swig of the brandy and nodded, "Oh yeah, more than okay. She got off with a warning since we can't actually fine her for murder…"

The couple hummed in agreement and listened in for further detail.

"She's packed her bags and went off. I don't even know where she is."

"I guess it's for the better," Chuck grinned, "if she'll be happier that way."

Cod frowned, "And why are you so supportive Missy?"

"Well, because I know what it's like to grow up without your mom and dad." She looked up at both Ned and Emerson, "It's hard always having to wonder if you'll feel the love and warmth of a parent, especially if you're young. She had to deal with that all her life."

And suddenly, though it should have been clear to them all along, the private investigator and the Pie Maker both felt a pang of sympathy for the girl they _knew_ but never got to _know_. All they had thought of her before was how silly and childish her case has had seemed. But now...

"She'll be happier this way, I know it." Chuck concluded.

"Heck, I think so too." Cod added.

"So will Olive." Ned shifted his gaze onto her, "I'll have to tell her my secret someday, but I want to let her enjoy her life before then."

"You did the right thing Ned." Emerson added, taking another swig of his drink when Ned looked up at him sympathetically. He coughed and nodded abruptly, "Right, well then, I'll be off. I'm just glad this ridiculous case is over with..."

"Thank you, Emerson." Ned grimaced as he bid his colleague farewell.

As the room fell into a serene sort of peace he did not think was possible only day earlier, The Pie Maker then thought of how lucky he still was to have Chuck with him.

He thought of the day when he'd tell Olive of his secret and of the day where Randy was bound to learn of it as well.

He also thought of the day where he'd be reunited with the fantastically insane half-sister. And his father…

Maybe, just maybe, he thought, all this had happened so that he could realize he wasn't the only one in the world with this "gift", and that maybe, just maybe, the thing that had separated him from the world for so long had something to do with the man who had separated himself from his son and family for years and years.

But for now, in the town of Coeur de Coeur's, The Pie Maker held Chuck's hand a little tighter and thanked Nora for having brought his friend back to life, for now, things could slowly go back to the way they were - or at least, as close as possible.


End file.
